As Broncos close door on Dumervil, they open it for Freeney, Abraham

Posted by Mike Florio on March 24, 2013, 6:01 PM EDT

AP

The Peyton Manning/Dwight Freeney reunion could be happening, after all.

With defensive end Elvis Dumervil now a linebacker in Baltimore’s 3-4 defense, the Broncos need to find a replacement. But first, they officially said farewell to the man they drafted in round four less than four months after he was stomped on the leg by Mike Vick’s kid brother.

“As we have from the start of this process, we worked diligently over the last week to find a way for Elvis Dumervil to remain a Denver Bronco,” Broncos executive V.P. of football operations John Elway said in a statement issued by the team. “Although we made multiple contract offers to Elvis after being forced to release him, we were unable to reach an agreement and are now moving forward without him.

“Elvis was a team captain and a talented player who made a great impact during his seven seasons in Denver. I appreciate all of his effort on the field and the work he did in the community.

“I wish Elvis all the best as he continues his NFL career.”

He likely won’t wish Elvis the best when he returns to Denver in 2013 as a member of the Ravens. But Elway will counter the loss of Dumervil with either John Abraham or Freeney.

26 responses to “As Broncos close door on Dumervil, they open it for Freeney, Abraham”

Learn from the Redskins great draft building philosophy and draft talent like Ryan Kerrigan, Rob Jackson and Brian Orakpo. Don’t go the FA route like the Eagles and Bucs in recen years. The Redskins have laid out the blueprint for the rest of the NFL as usual. #RedskinsBurgundynGoldstandard

Stat comparison,Doom 11 sacks,6 forced fumbles-Abraham 10 sacks 6 forced fumbles,speaks for itself,sign Abraham and draft a pass rusher there gonna need him more than we will Thomas,decker,&Welker is gonna give teams fits,and he’s gonna have a hard time getting around Ryan Clady.

Tough call, both are older than I’m sure they would like. Eventually, they will have to start thinking about life after Peyton, but as long as they can be stronger with one of them, go for it. They each will have the benefit of a more solid defense and might get back to their days of old for another run.

Elvis Dumervil is a punk. I already couldn’t wait to play the Ravens again but this just added fire to it. Good pick up on their part that Ravens D is gonna be scary no doubt. But as for Denver, good thing this draft is deep on the dline. I hope they get a replacement for Doom, maybe on who could stop the run and rush the passer. I think Ayers is gonna break out this year, I remember him always being in the qbs face and sets the edge well too. DE in the first, DT in the 2nd, CB in the 3rd hopefully Will Davis outta Utah St, not only cuz I know him buy dude can ball and would be a steal in the 3rd specially after learning from Champ Bailey. Freeney would be my pick outta the 2 I think the colts defense sucked and it hurt him. Our secondary can cover (except for Rahim Moore) and Miller is way more of a threat than Mathis. speaking of which I think this year Millers sack number drop a litter but well start to see more INTS. and more plays all over the feild. With his size strength and speed he’d be perfect to covet TEs if they can get a pass rush without him.

Dumervil wont even come close to Peyton as Mr. Clady will have something to say about that.. I’m assuming the Broncos-Ravens game will be considered a “big” game by many and as we all know.. Elvis doesn’t show up for those games…

I think Broncos messed up here. Regardless if they get a good replacement, its better to keep the same team together best you can. This seems like such an odd story – hard to believe that if 2 people wanted to work it out they couldn’t.

Say what you want about time, if you have an $8m deal, that is something you “baby” til the end and make happen on time. The agent gets paid 3% to make the process smooth – so I guess to me it is clearly his fault. Still, why couldn’t they find a solution???

Lol at the Bronco fans lying to themselves, You wish You had Dumervil but he Chose to go the Better Team, The Reigning Champs. Good Luck Clady trying to protect Peyton with Suggs, Ngata, Dumervil, Upshaw coming.

I don’t believe the Broncos wanted Dumervil back even at the reduced salary he agreed to. I believe they received that fax on time and and just dished up a load of BS to claim it was received late. They wanted to keep him, but at even less than the 8 mil. that he agreed to. They were probably surprised when he changed his mind and accepted the reduced offer. They didn’t think he would take that, and in their minds had already moved on.

Shouldn’t the title read “As Dumervil closes door on Broncos, they scurry to sign Freeney, Abraham.
The Broncos didn’t close a door, in fact, you could say that they opened the door for all this to happen.